Ivory Coast faces uphill battle against counterfeit medicine

Opposition to challenge president's re-election

Rivals of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected this month, are planning to challenge the poll result, officials have said. Yudhoyono denied foul play, but said rivals had the right to contest the results peacefully.

REUTERS - Rivals of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in a landslide victory this month, have cried foul and plan to challenge the poll result, officials said on Saturday.

Rival candidates Megawati Sukarnoputri and Vice President Jusuf Kalla would file complaints to Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, officials from both camps said on Saturday.

Under Indonesian law, presidential candidates have up to three days to file complaints after the unveiling of the official vote count.

Megawati got 26.79 percent of votes in the July 8 poll and Kalla 12.41 percent, while Yudhoyono received 60.8 percent, according to the final count released by the General Election Commission on Saturday.

“A lot of foul play in the election has meant people in this country have not been able to use their constitutional rights,” Firman Jaya Daeli, a member of Megawati’s camp, told reporters.

Yudi Krisnandi, an official from Kalla’s camp, said he believed there were “many cases of fraud” in the election process.

Yudhoyono denied there had been widespread foul play in the election and said opposing candidates had the right to launch a peaceful challenge.

“It almost certainly will not affect the results announced by the commission today,” he added.

Supporters of Kalla have alleged that electoral lists contained around 20 million duplicate names, while backers of Megawati and Prabowo have also complained about widespread problems with electoral lists.

I Gusti Putu Artha, an election commission member, told Metro TV the Constitutional Court would decide whether the complaints should be investigated. The court has two weeks to investigate and make a decision.